


Bridges

by raving_liberal



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Genre: Existential Crisis, Gen, Gods, New Gods, Old Gods, Social Media, Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 17:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10995969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: After the old gods, after the new gods, what comes next? Who comes next?





	Bridges

“The trouble with gods is…”

The voice woke Shadow in the night, and he clutched his pillow around his ears with a groaned “oh no.”

“The trouble with gods is,” the voice continued, wistful and whimsical in equal measures, “you never _really_ know you’ve got it right. Like, can you even source that shit?”

“No,” Shadow said, holding the pillow tighter. “No, I’m not doing this, not tonight.”

“You’ve got books or whatever, sure, but how do you _know_? Like, _know_? Humans wrote those books, right? What about human fallibility? Who even checks those books? The last edition could’ve been, like, _two years_ ago.”

This voice sounded like the girls Shadow remembered from high school. Not the mean ones, who laughed at his accent or the way his big hands dangled out of his too-short shirt sleeves, but the kind girls, who shared their lunch with him on days his mother was too sick to pack one or the bills had all come in at once, not leaving any money left over for lunch. For that reason, and that alone, Shadow removed the pillow from his ears.

Perched on top of his dresser, boot-clad feet swinging, the girl with blue hair waved at him. She blew a large bubble with her gum and popped it.

“Don't you think it’d be better if they had, you know, like real instructions? The old guys like instructions, right? Like a tutorial or a wiki?” she asked.

Shadow sat up in bed, suddenly uncomfortably self-conscious about his minimalist choice of sleeping attire. England was unseasonably warm this year, and the room without air conditioning. 

“A tutorial… for gods?” Shadow asked. 

The girl nodded, her blue hair rippling around her face and catching the low light. Shadow placed her somewhere in the interminable—to him at least—window between 15 and 20, though considering her sudden appearance in his room at 1:36am and her choice of conversation topic, he knew his guess could be wildly off.

“So you know you’re doing it right,” the girl said. “If you can get the old guys to set up a Tumblr—”

“A what?” 

“Or a Twitter. Twitter would be fine, too. Even the president has a Twitter.”

“You think the old gods need Twitter,” Shadow said.

“YouTube would be even better. They could do a Let’s Play, but for, like, how to worship or something,” the girl said.

“I’m not sure what that is,” Shadow admitted. 

“A Let’s Play? It’s a video where… you know what? I can’t—I can’t even.” The girl sighed with her whole body, shoulders rising and dropping, then she blew and popped another bubble. “That’s not really why I’m here.”

“Why _are_ you here?” 

“We miss you,” the girl said. She flickered faintly, her grey after-image coming and going like a single frame spliced into a reel of film. Shadow rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. The girl’s blue hair danced, luminous, around her face. 

“Have we met?” Shadow asked. 

The girl tipped her head to the side as she laughed. The moonlight reflected off the piercing in her tongue. “No. Not us,” she said. “Not specifically. I’m a Millennial, technically. Why? Do I remind you of someone?”

Shadow could honestly say he had never met anyone quite like this girl, not among the old gods or the new, so he shook he his head. “No.”

“There’s always someone new to meet,” the girl said, laughter gone and tone serious. “Someone always comes next.”

“So you’re what came next?” Shadow asked. 

“ _Who _came next, Shadow,” the girl said.__

__“I’m sorry. Who came next,” Shadow said. “And who are you?”_ _

__The girl smiled then. She suddenly looked much, much older. “I’m everyone. I’m the connection between you and them, and between them and each other. I’m the news they get, and how they get it. I’m the space between the screens.”_ _

__Shadow couldn’t help his furrowed brow, because in that moment, she reminded him of the Technical Boy. She wasn’t threatening him with extinction, at least._ _

__“Media?” Shadow asked, immediately certain he was wrong. They hadn't met, she said, but then, Shadow had never met Old World Odin even once in his time spent with Wednesday._ _

__“Kinda. More social,” the girl said._ _

__Twitter. YouTube. Connections. Right._ _

__“Social Media,” Shadow guessed, the girl’s answering smile brilliant._ _

__“You’re smarter than they ever gave you credit for,” Social Media said. “None of them really understood what you had in you.”_ _

__“Potential?” Shadow asked wryly. Social Media laughed, and her feet swung with the intensity of it._ _

__“Who cares about potential? Every cell has potential to divide. Every tag has potential to trend. Anything could go viral, from a cat video to an actual virus,” she said._ _

__“So what then?”_ _

__Social Media smiled at him. In that moment, her hair swirled around her head like the halo on a Greek icon, a backdrop for her soft cheeks and kind eyes, faintly reflective._ _

__“You’re the bridge, Shadow,” she said. “You’re what connects them to us. Them to Us.” When Shadow didn't answer, Social Media continued, “The biggest mistake both sides made was believing people had to choose, because people can worship more than one god, can't they?”_ _

__Shadow nods. “They can.”_ _

__“Televangelists knew it first. The Mormons, wow, did they ever get that gods-and-media thing down fast,” she said, shaking her head in wonder. “My generation doesn't want to fight. We want you to believe in something. Us, of course, but other things, too. The more you believe in them, the more you need us.”_ _

__Shadow considered this for a moment. He thought about governments shutting down the internet to try to stem the rising tide of revolution. He thought about prayer chains, Facebook “click to show your support” posts, multifaith convocations livestreamed globally. The old gods made new._ _

__“What do you want me to do?” Shadow asked, finally._ _

__“ _Believe_ ,” Social Media said._ _

__“It's that simple?” Shadow said._ _

__“When is belief ever simple?” she asked._ _

__Never, he thought, looking down at his hands. Nothing is ever as simple as they try to sell you on it being. He wanted to tell Social Media this, but when he looked up, he found himself alone again._ _

__“Typical god bullshit,” Shadow said, but when he fell asleep again, he dreamt about synapses firing, neurons speaking to neurons, about words becoming data becoming waves. He dreamt of those waves being received. He dreamt about bridges._ _


End file.
